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[jameswhitby]

So, actually, this question is about a friend of mine, who's Chinese, in my program.

He's almost on the job market, and he puts his Chinese name on his CV, right under his name at the top/beginning of the CV. I asked him why he did that, he said it was to respect his heritage, and to honour who he is and his roots (or something to that effect).

I think the motives are noble, but I wasn't sure what would happen on the job market with a CV like that. What do you think? Oh, his advisor doesn't know yet, but i guess he will sooner or later!

[voxprincipalis]

I can't see anything possibly wrong with this.

Presuming that his name (written in non-Chinese characters) is identifiably of Chinese origin, I think it will be pretty obvious what the characters are.

If his name is Joe Smith, that might be a bit more of a disconnect.

VP

[systeme_d_]

You're not sure what will happen on the job market because he put his own name on his CV?

Am I misunderstanding your question?

What in the world would be wrong with putting his name both in English and in Chinese on his CV?

[mended_drum]

No one will care either way.

[sciencephd]

What is he, a freaking communist ?

[vardahilwen]

I'm confused - do you mean that for his name, he puts ONLY the Chinese characters at the top of the CV and no English/phonetic equivalent?  If so, this would indeed be confusing to Americans - such as when "the artist formerly known as Prince" decided to change his name to a symbol - what do you call this person?  If the search committee wanted to phone him for an interview, who would they ask for if all they have in front of them is a symbol they can't pronounce?

If he's putting both the Chinese characters and the English spelling, I don't see a problem - it's unusual, yes, but I'm sure they'll be able to tell from other elements on his CV that his country of origin is China.

If his name is Chinese but he goes by "Sam" in the U.S., he might want to put that name in parentheses - some of his colleagues might only know him by that name.

I imagine you're thinking of those studies where they sent out identical resumes under names like Joseph Johnson and Miguel Rodriguez to see which would get more responses, and the "ethnic" names received fewer invitations for interviews, even though the resumes were exactly the same.  I don't think changing one's name is the solution to that.

[svenc]

This response assumes that the OP meant using Chinese characters, and not just writing out the Chinese name in Latin characters.  (OP, perhaps you can clarify what you were asking?)

If so, I will play the contrarian and say I don't see any reason to include the actual Chinese characters on an English language CV.  It will be irrelevant to most readers, and unfortunately might invite some employers to think that this person is less English-language oriented than if he just put his name in Latin characters.

But I certainly do not think it would be the kiss of death to include his name in Chinese characters if that is his preference.

[inthelab]

I see a problem, if I understand the OP.  OP, does the person have an American name ("Harold") and also a Chinese name ("Huang")?  If so, this anecdote's for you.  I had a student named (pseudonym) Charlene who also went by Hsaio-Lin.  It was very confusing to me and the other folks in the lab since she signed her notes Hsiao-Lin, yet introduced herself as Charlene (had Charlene on transcript, etc).  When she finished, she continued the split-personality bit, sometimes contacting me as Charlene, sometimes as Hsiao-Lin, for recs. 
IMO, just put the name on the CV you are going to use.  You have an Americanized name; use it for consistency's sake.  It's not disrespectful to do so.  Or forget your American name and just use your Chinese name.

ITL, who has an ethnic name that she chooses not to use professionally

[smallways]

I see a problem, if I understand the OP.  OP, does the person have an American name ("Harold") and also a Chinese name ("Huang")?  If so, this anecdote's for you.  I had a student named (pseudonym) Charlene who also went by Hsaio-Lin.  It was very confusing to me and the other folks in the lab since she signed her notes Hsiao-Lin, yet introduced herself as Charlene (had Charlene on transcript, etc).  When she finished, she continued the split-personality bit, sometimes contacting me as Charlene, sometimes as Hsiao-Lin, for recs. 
IMO, just put the name on the CV you are going to use.  You have an Americanized name; use it for consistency's sake.  It's not disrespectful to do so.  Or forget your American name and just use your Chinese name.

ITL, who has an ethnic name that she chooses not to use professionally

The most common convention I've seen has been to list both names, with the less common name in brackets:

Josh (Jing-yun) Zhang
Liang (Lily) Chen

I agree with others that as long as the name is on the CV in latin characters as well, the Chinese characters will be irrelevant at worst, and nothing to worry about.

[inthelab]

I see a problem, if I understand the OP.  OP, does the person have an American name ("Harold") and also a Chinese name ("Huang")?  If so, this anecdote's for you.  I had a student named (pseudonym) Charlene who also went by Hsaio-Lin.  It was very confusing to me and the other folks in the lab since she signed her notes Hsiao-Lin, yet introduced herself as Charlene (had Charlene on transcript, etc).  When she finished, she continued the split-personality bit, sometimes contacting me as Charlene, sometimes as Hsiao-Lin, for recs. 
IMO, just put the name on the CV you are going to use.  You have an Americanized name; use it for consistency's sake.  It's not disrespectful to do so.  Or forget your American name and just use your Chinese name.

ITL, who has an ethnic name that she chooses not to use professionally

The most common convention I've seen has been to list both names, with the less common name in brackets:

Josh (Jing-yun) Zhang
Liang (Lily) Chen

This is a good convention to adopt.